Blurgelflurgal

I’m about 99% certain the word in the title of this post isn’t a real word, but I’m also 100% certain it is the right one to express the way I’ve been of late.

At least with respect to gaming and blogging specifically.

There hasn’t been anything wrong. Nor is it like that there aren’t any games I want to play. There are several! Normally I would suggest that perhaps that’s part of the problem. Completely incidentally, Magi even wrote quite recently on the trouble with choice as it applies to gaming. There is a well-known TED talk called The Paradox of Choice which often comes to mind in these situations, and very much worth a look if you’re not familiar with it. It’s old enough to still refer to ‘tapes’, but no less relevant for it.

Although perhaps not relevant to this situation as I’m unsure it’s the problem for me right now.

I mean, hell, a large part of it is simply that I’ve chosen to do other things. e.g., watch more shows. A little while ago, we picked up an Apple TV+ subscription (adding to the already overblown stable of subscription services) and I started watching See and For All Mankind.

Throw into that mix the things I’m watching with my wife (Resident Alien!) and there just simply isn’t a lot of time left to game.

That isn’t a complete picture either though.

Because ‘not a lot’ isn’t the same as ‘none’, and certainly there are times when I’ve been sat down at the computer, sometimes with a specific game in mind that I would like to play and… then still not load it. Just… A wall of blurgelflurgal.

I set a couple of gaming goals for myself in the last journal, and they have both been on my mind this month. As a refresher, they were:

• XCOM 2: Start a new campaign!
  All the way through the succession game, I’ve had a bit of an itch to play more than the game has allowed. But I’ve been reluctant to do so, from a desire not to play without mods or, worse, to risk corrupting our current game with mod data inadvertently. But! I think vanilla XCOM 2 is actually pretty OK after now having played it a while. So, I’ll just do that. :)
• Cities Skylines: Start a new blogger city!
  Scratching another itch and following on the theme of new beginnings. It seems oddly appropriate as a theme, as I do feel quite refreshed and ready to start again in a more normal fashion upon completion of Blaugust.

I’m going to start with Cities: Skylines as I feel there is at least some form of rationality behind this one. Much to my surprise, Cities: Skylines received another DLC expansion! Plazas and Promenades, focused on pedestrian-only spaces, including pedestrian only zoneable roads.

It is taking a bit of flak (rightly, I think) for not better integrating with the games other DLCs, e.g.; the player-built Parks and Universities regions cannot connect into the pedestrian zones.

But I imagine mods will be along to save the day shortly. Although in fact, that segueways nicely into most of my delay on play for Cities: With a new expansion, all the mods need to be updated again to work. The major ones get done pretty quickly, but the full suite can take some time.

Also?

While I certainly can make my own collection of mods. I’m capable of it. But… I’d rather not. ;) So I’m quite happy to just wait for one of my favourite Cities: Skylines content creators to start a new modded city project with the DLC and grab their collection. I’ve in fact seen one such collection already now, so… maybe soon?

XCOM 2 I can claim no such logic for.

I just… haven’t. Despite the fact the desire to play it with a new campaign hasn’t actually gone anywhere.

Although last night I might’ve, maybe, kinda, sorta… transferred that desire for XCOM 2 into Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate.

We’ll see if it sticks though. Because as much as I think I enjoy new games in this genre, typically my experience is: ‘Yeah- it’s OK; but now I’d just rather play XCOM again instead.’

But so far (less than 2 hours, only a couple of missions past tutorial), this in many respects is XCOM but in a Warhammer 40k wrapper. I don’t mean to belittle the differences where they exist (although I’m also not ready to talk about them yet), but one key example being: I figured in this setting, where your space marines are hulking battle tanks in their own right, trivialities like ‘cover’ wouldn’t be a factor.

But it is! There is the half cover/full cover system at play here, which was a pleasant surprise to me.

I think what will ultimately determine my enjoyment of the game is going to be the class skills and how they feel to use. Right now, with a squad with a meager handful of promotions, the role utility hasn’t really emerged yet.

I also probably wouldn’t have picked it up at all except for a friend playing through it now as well. Single-player Multiplayer ftw!

In any case, I think the current wall of Blurgelflurgal might be busted through. Or at least a hole big enough to crawl through found, in large part by way of jumping back into some games with friends. :)

As to whether I’ll hit either goal I set for myself though… Well… Given today is the end of the month and it’s a work day… Unlikely, although not impossible. It is Friday at least! Huzzah Friday!